"The death of the fearsome Ögedei Khan has brought the Mongol invasion of the West to an abrupt halt. Exhausted, plagued by uncertainty and self-doubt, and reeling from betrayal by one of their own, the surviving Shield-Brethren struggle across a frozen, shattered wasteland to return home after their desperate battle in Mongolia.
Their mission is complete—Christendom has been saved—but new and terrible questions haunt each member of the company: Are they heroes or villains? Or just pawns in a larger game, trapped in a world gone mad in the wake of the unspeakable devastation visited upon it by the Mongol horde?
And most poignant of all, where—and what—is “home” now, and what will be their place in the world they fought to defend?
Katabasis, a new novel in the acclaimed Foreworld Saga, follows the survivors as they struggle to confront their own fears and decide who they truly are—and whom they will ultimately serve."
"Three exciting stand-alone SideQuest adventures set in the alternate history world of the popular Foreworld Saga, collected in a single volume.
“The Beast of Calatrava” by Mark Teppo is an intriguing alternate history tale in which both a battle-scarred former knight with a blood-soaked history and a monk with a mysterious past face the encroaching Templar crusade and the war coming to Iberia.
In “The Shield Maiden” by Michael “Tinker” Pearce and Linda Pearce, a headstrong and skilled young Viking woman struggles through the stigmas of her time to claim her spot among the fiercest of fighters.
“The Lion in Chains” by Angus Trim and Mark Teppo is a visionary adventure in which the legendary Robin Hood joins forces with a clandestine order of warrior monks to rescue the kidnapped King Richard the Lionheart."
"SideQuests are stand-alone stories or novellas that chronicle the heroes, villains, and adventures in The Foreworld Saga across numerous eras and ages. They can be read in any order with or without prior knowledge of The Foreworld Saga.
Many were displeased with the “peace” King Richard of England brokered in the Holy Land, and his return from the Crusades wasn’t greeted with cheers, but rather shackles. Now a “guest” of the Holy Roman Emperor, the Lion-Hearted is being held for an exorbitant ransom…so much money that it seems unlikely that the silver will make its way from Britain to Germany.
For converging on the caravan are a number of groups with very different motives: French troops who want the silver to continue their war with the English, mercenaries intent on causing chaos, English longbowmen looking to protect their country’s future, and Shield-Brethren hoping to ensure King Richard’s freedom.
With a surprising cast of characters, The Lion in Chains is a Foreworld SideQuest that illuminates a decisive moment in European history in an unexpected way, revealing another secret in the long-reaching narrative of the Shield-Brethren."
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